Bergstedt, Märta-Lena

Abstract [en]

This paper deals with rights of women and their social role during the Viking Age. The method is to compare things and written material.

In the written material, three cases of rape have been identified. How each of these cases where looked upon differs; legally the punishment for rape was exile. Violence against wives implied their right to divorce, whereby they were entitled to take with them a great part of the family´s capital, namely their dowry and morning gift.

A husband and wife did not inherit each other but a widow could inherit from her children if they died without offspring.

Women buried in boat graves indicate that they had a function or were closely involved in the cult. From two graves, the Aska Grave and the Oseberg Grave, the findings can be interpreted as indicating a change in the social behaviour. I propose this was a way of breaking with the past and sabotaging the right to remember earlier cultural habits.